Pro Focus: 'Skins Of '90 Similar To '89

Pro Focus -

January 18, 1991|By WARNER HESSLER Staff Writer

The 1990 National Football League season was one in which the Washington Redskins appeared to break out of a three-year funk, a season in which they became reacquainted with the playoffs for the first time since winning Super Bowl XXII.

Statistically, though, there was little to distinguish the 10-6 team of 1990 that posted a 1-1 playoff record from the 10-6 team of 1989 that missed the playoffs in a tiebreaker.

As in 1989, when the Redskins salvaged the season by closing with five straight victories, the 1990 team was languishing at 5-4 in mid-November before roaring into the playoffs with five victories in their last seven games.

It was a season of uncharacteristic highs and lows for a Joe Gibbs-coached team. Gibbs, a ball control proponent, rarely had things under control in 1990.

He kept his seat belt fastened during an up and down season in which his team was capable of rolling up 674 yards in overcoming a 21-point deficit to beat Detroit and following it with a 200-yard effort and losing to Philadelphia the next week.

This was supposed to be the year of the big play with a more experienced Mark Rypien throwing long to the league's best and deepest receiving corps. But just three plays covered more than 50 yards, two by the defense. Gary Clark caught a 53-yard pass from Rypien and strong safety Alvin Walton had 61- and 57-yard interception returns.

Running back Earnest Byner rushed for a career high 1,219 yards but the 28-year-old Rypien, faced by a steady diet of double zone defenses and forced to miss six games with a knee injury, passed for 300 yards or more in just one game and did not solidify his claim to the starting job in 1991.

Most of the improvements were by a defense that struggled early but held five of its last six opponents to less than 300 total yards.

A thin defensive line became deep and strong early in the season when a pair of fourth-round draft picks were spent to acquire tackles Eric Williams (from Detroit) and Tim Johnson, rookie linebacker Andre Collins emerged as a star of the future, cornerback Darrell Green regained all-pro status at age 30, and free agent cornerback Martin Mayhew improved to where opponents stopped building game plans around him.

All in all, the 1990 Redskins played at the same level as the 1989 edition. But in a season of parity, 10-6 was easily good enough to make the playoffs.

OFFENSE

* Quarterback: Rypien's problems and inconsistencies began early when he completed just 3-of-13 passes on third down in a defeat by San Francisco and suffered a knee injury the next week against Dallas. He returned with a 311-yard effort against New Orleans and three touchdowns against Miami, but finished with nine interceptions in the last four games of the season and three more against San Francisco in the playoffs.

Stan Humphries, the quarterback-in-waiting, got his chance to play during Rypien's absence and failed miserably. He was benched in his fifth start, career reserve Jeff Rutledge started one game, and running back Brian Mitchell finished the second Philadelphia game after injuries sidelined Humphries and Rutledge.

The Redskins would like to upgrade this position, but consistent quarterbacks are hard to find. Unless Washington is able to trade for Atlanta's Chris Miller, it looks like more Rypien and Humphries in 1991 with promising rookie Cary Conklin in waiting.

* Running back: After a hit-and-miss first half of the season in which Gibbs alternated Byner and Gerald Riggs, the running game picked up after Riggs was injured in Week 11. Byner launched his drive for 1,000 yards and trigged a ground game that totaled 881 yards in the last five games.

Riggs was injured for most of the season for the second straight year and may be exposed to Plan B free agency this winter. Mitchell, who looked like a younger version of Byner with 81 yards on just 15 carries, should see more action next season and eventually become the starter.

* Receivers: The Posse - Gary Clark, Art Monk and Ricky Sanders - suffered a significant dropoff from their record-breaking season of 1989 when they combined for 245 receptions for 3,553 yards.

Zone defenses, instability at quarterback and dropped passes limited their production to 199 catches for 2,609 yards. Clark had a Pro Bowl season and Monk continued on a steady course to the Hall of Fame, but deep-running Sanders dropped - unofficially - 33 passes and managed just three touchdown receptions. The Posse is in its prime, though, and still among the best in the league. Byner, despite an increased running load, caught 31 passes but tight end Don Warren rarely got into the pass patterns. The blocking specialist caught 15 passes, 10 in one game.